I read a lot and a lot of what read unless it’s the crossword puzzle or the police blotter, turn out to be complaints. Objections, criticisms, or just plain bitching, whatever you call it, constitutes a large part of what is printed or said these days, what in reality turns out to be nothing more than deep groans by professional groaners who mostly whine about anything. You name the issue and there is no end of people willing to find fault, then nag, nag, nag against it, no matter what it is. Most of the bitching is done on general principles, because the person being criticized is of a different party, or sex, or race, or whatever, and many times the bitching starts even before the critic understands what is being proposed. And it’s not just limited to the written word: editorial cartoons are full of irritating harassment against everybody and everything, stray dogs not barred, so much so that the fun has gone out of reading editorials any more. In the past, say twenty years ago, whoever made a criticism, also laid out his argument by providing strong evidence for his objections and then went on to propose a better solution, or a cheaper one, etcetera. Not anymore. Now, people just complain as if that alone was sufficient.
Take Climate Change for example, a hot button issue if there ever was one. The government, the president, governors, people in charge, get accused, if not outright blamed for this, mostly referring to our risings seas and temperatures. So, what are the critics proposing be done? I haven’t heard of a single solution, other than saying we need to lower our carbon footprint. Okay, got it, but how? If lowering carbon emissions is the solution, and considering the world economy runs on petroleum products, natural gas and coal, all carbon based, then we’re stuck with climate change. I can’t imagine a single thing that can be done by anybody to prevent climate change. First of all, for anything to work, it would have to include the rest of the world. We’re only 300 plus million in this country. Give or take, that’s about 4% of the world population. I know we consume more than our fair share, but still, even if we ruined our economy by dropping carbon like a hot potato, the difference would be minimal. No one that I know is willing to do that, or even try it. The same thing goes for trash and plastic waste. Like it or not, trash and plastics are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. My essay published on Sept. 18, 2020 in the (link) Denton Record Chronicle is about that and the futile attempts at recycling.